Modern technology provides for a variety of communication means and methods. For example, there are many types of communications including voice calls, video calls, text messages, photo messages, etc. Additionally, communication may be one-to-one or multi-party communications. Typically multi-party communications are accomplished by a plurality of devices communicating with a central infrastructure. For example, a central infrastructure may be a central computer server or a group of computer servers maintained in a server farm. A central infrastructure may be expensive to establish, maintain and operate.
Many advances have been made in mobile handheld technology. Specifically smart phones have increasingly more features. There is an increased demand to develop the functionality of the smart phones and their components. For example, some smart phones now have two cameras, one mounted on the front and one on the back. Additionally, smart phones may have more than one method of connecting to a network to transmit data. These features can be used to provide a more comprehensive communication experience.
Advances have also been made with respect to video conferencing between mobile devices. For example, Google Hangout™ enables people to share photos and have real-life conversations. However, when switching from one function to another function, such as video conferencing to an audio call or texting, the video picture of the video conference will disappear to account for the second function (e.g., the audio call). In another example Cisco WebX™ enables online meeting experiences by incorporating audio, video and real-time content sharing. Thus, Cisco WebX™ allows for a group of people to switch between at least two modalities (e.g., audio, video, etc.). However, these functions and modalities are not available to non-participants to the online meeting. Thus, many limitations exist with regard to performing multiple functions while video conferencing.
The drawings referred to in this description of embodiments should be understood as not being drawn to scale except if specifically noted.